Ghana politics and Oxford PPE

When British Prime Minister David Cameron graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford in 1988 with a First Class Honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), he was following in a tradition that also includes the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and his brother David.

But the list of political leaders from overseas who are Oxford PPE graduates is equally impressive. It includes the late Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, the former Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser, and a former President of Ghana, John Kufuor.

Now, as Ghana prepares for its Presidential elections on December 7th, the influence that Oxford University, and its world-renowned course in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, has had on the political community of this developing African country is particularly notable.

The Oxford PPE tradition for political leaders in Ghana dates back to its struggle for independence from British Colonial Rule. When the Gold Coast, now Ghana, gained independence in 1957, two Oxford PPE graduates were poised to lead the country’s transformation.

Edward Akufo-Addo was a middle aged lawyer at the time of independence. He was one of the so-called Big Six leaders in the fight for the independence. In 1947 they founded the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the leading political party in the final years of the colony. The six were detained by British Colonial authorities in 1948 following unrest in the capital, Accra.

Mr Akufo-Addo was educated at the elite Achimota School in Accra. From there he won a scholarship to Oxford, where he became one of the first students of the new St Peter’s College.

According to the University’s Degree Conferrals Office, he attended St Peter’s between 1933 and 1936, studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and was awarded a Third Class BA degree.

Mr Akufo-Addo took up a career as a lawyer and returned to his home country to start work in private practice. Before becoming President of Ghana he served as a Supreme Court Judge and as Chief Justice of Ghana and Chairman of the Constitutional Commission.

He served as President of Ghana from August 1970 to January 1972. Less than a year later, he was deposed in a coup d’état by General Ignatius Acheampong.

Also deposed in that coup was another Oxford PPE graduate, the Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia. In reality it was he, rather than his President, who held the power in Ghana, Mr Akufo-Addo’s role being more ceremonial.

Mr Busia had gained his first degree in Medieval and Modern history by correspondence course from the University of London. But in 1939 he came to Oxford, where, like his President before him, he studied PPE, graduating in two years rather than the usual three.

According to the Degree Conferrals office, he attended University College between 1939 and 1941, and was awarded a Second Class BA degree. He was that College’s first African student, and he was awarded a DPhil in 1947.

Back home, Mr Busia became the first African to take up a Chair at the University of Gold Coast. In 1952 he became leader of the Ghana Congress Party, which later merged with other opposition parties to form the United Party.

As an opponent of Ghana’s first Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah, Mr Busia fled the country in fear of his life and took up a Professorship at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He later returned to his academic roots, becoming a Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford, before returning to Ghana in 1966 when Nkrumah’s government was overthrown by the military.

Kofi Abrefa Busia went on to form the Progress Party which, in 1969, won most of the seats in the parliamentary elections, allowing him to go forward as Prime Minister. His tenure, however, was not without its controversies, including the deportation of half a million Nigerian citizens from Ghana and a 44 per cent devaluation of the cedi in 1971.

Mr Busia chose to spend his final years back at Oxford University as a lecturer in Sociology and died in the city in 1978.

During Ghana’s Second Republic another Oxford PPE graduate was to be found within the government of Kofi Busia’s Progress Party.

The Degree Conferrals office confirms that John Kufuor attended Exeter College, Oxford, between 1961 and 1964, where he studied PPE and was awarded a Third Class BA degree.

Mr Kufuor came to office as the second President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana at the beginning of 2001 having led the New Patriotic Party to victory in 2000.

With another NPP victory in 2004, he served another term as President and relinquished the post in January 2009. In the year 2007-2008, during his second term in office he also held the prestigious position of Chairperson of the African Union.

Over the years Mr Kufuor gained a reputation at home and overseas for his anti-poverty work and in 2011 he was a joint recipient of the World Food prize, awarded for his efforts during his presidency to alleviate hunger and poverty in Ghana.

In next month’s elections for the presidency of Ghana, the incumbent John Dramani Mahama is standing for the ruling National Democratic Congress, (NDC,) while Nana Akufo-Addo represents the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP.)

Mr Mahama chose to undertake his undergraduate studies at the University of Ghana in Legon, before travelling to Moscow and the wider Soviet Union for his postgraduate education.

Mr Akufo-Addo had his early schooling in Accra and then went to the UK to attend Holmewood House Prep School before going to Lancing College. According to university records, Mr Akufo-Addo went up to Oxford University in 1962. However, he is not listed as graduating. According to the Degree Conferrals Office he attended New College in 1962/63 to study PPE. However the office did not provide any further information about his time at Oxford or about why no degree is recorded.

He went on to read Economics at the University of Ghana before returning to the UK to study law and was called to the English Bar in July 1971 and the Ghana Bar in 1975.

In 1992 Mr Akufo-Addo was one of the founder members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). In 2008 he was narrowly defeated for the Presidency by John Atta Mills, having resigned from John Kufuor’s government in order to enter the contest. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1996, serving as a Cabinet Minister in successive governments. He was also the founder and first chairperson Ghana Committee on Human and People's Rights

In February 2006, as Foreign Minister, Mr Akufo-Addo returned to Oxford to address students at his father’s former college, St Peter’s on the subject of “Ghana: the democratic project,” describing the country’s position as “a bastion of democracy and stability in the troubled West African region.”

Mr Akufo-Addo said at the time: “Oxford is a great institute of learning, and it is important that it continues to develop its focus on African development and politics. There is a tendency to think of Africa in a negative light or as a far-off irrelevancy; but events like this help to bring the African paradigm to the forefront of academic thought.”

The then Master of St Peter’s College, Professor Bernard Silverman said: “It is a delight to welcome the Foreign Minister back to Oxford, especially since his father, a former President, was one of the first students at the college. It is good to celebrate the years of association between the family and St Peter's College – and we hope that this may be the start of many more years of friendship and working together.”

Whatever the results of the Ghanaian elections, it is clear that Oxford University and its PPE course has been fundamental to the thinking of many former students who have returned to Africa and led their nations into democracy.